Google Chrome browser nears 10 percent share

Google is making some ground in the browser market. In Nov. 2010, the browser hit a 9.27 percent market share, up almost a full percentage point from October, according to a report from Net Applications. The gain came at the cost of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which dropped by nearly a full point to 58.41 percent. Mozilla Firefox suffered a drop, but it was insignificant drop of .02 percent to land at 22.81 percent and Apple’s Safari browser rose a fifth of a point to 5.57 percent.

Chrome’s impressive month appears to have been caused by strong adoption of Chrome 7.0, the newest version of the browser. In a single month, 7.0 alone gained a 5.64 percent market share, the second largest monthly gain of any browser share since Net Applications began tracking. At this pace, 7.0 should almost completely replace 6.0 in two months time. Google’s new browser versions appear to have a quick adoption rate. Chrome 6.0 showed a similar two month replacement of 5.0.

Another reason for the gain could be attributed to the launch of Google TV, which uses a version of the Chrome browser. However, the actual numbers don’t reflect that. Google TV runs Chrome 5.0, the share of which actually fell from .26 percent to .20 percent in November, which was the first full month Google TV devices were on the market. This data doesn’t bode well for sales of the Logitech Revue and Google-powered Sony TVs.

Eweek points out that in November Google began running print ads in publications like the LA Times, which may have increased awareness of the browser.

Are you a Chrome user? It appears to be the browser of choice for the tech savvy and the only one that’s showing much growth.